Moral/Spiritual Value

Age Appropriateness

MPAA Rating

Caveat Spectator

In this version, the romantic lead who falls in love with the
princess is not the titular thief, but a beggar named Ahmad (John
Justin) who is actually the rightful king of Bagdad, but has been
deposed by his treacherous Grand Vizier Jaffar (Conrad Veidt).
The thief, on the other hand, is a mischievous, resourceful lad
named Abu (Sabu).

The remake includes parallels to many of the best elements in
the original, including the flying carpet, the flying horse (here
a mechanical horse without wings), the climb up a giant
statue to steal a magical crystal eye, and a battle with a giant
spider. Best of all are Abu’s adventures with a baleful genie
(Rex Ingram), whose meeting on the beach with Abu is an
unforgettable highlight.

Unfortunately, despite its golden reputation, this Thief of
Bagdad suffers from a number of defects that detract from the
fun. Justin is wooden as the boring Ahmad, and his
love-at-first-sight romance with the princess is far less
romantic than that of the silent version. Abu is a far livelier
character, but why is he wasting his time with this guy? The
film’s final image says it all.

There are other problems as well. Even in the annals of
foolishly wasted wishes, when a kid who’s sharp enough to
outsmart a genie bent on squashing him goes on to waste his first
of three wishes on sausages, it’s especially jaw-dropping. And
even magical fantasies need rules, but when Abu gets into a tight
spot and smashes a magical artifact with wholly unexpected and
unexplained results, it’s too arbitrary to seem magical rather
than contrived.

Families today will note how heavily Disney’s Aladdin
borrowed from this version of The Thief of Bagdad:
Disney’s treacherous grand vizier Jafar is overtly modeled on
Veidt’s Jaffar, who similarly plots to marry a princess who is in
love with a beggar who claims to be a prince, and whose dwarfish,
childlike sultan father (Miles Malleson) is the archetype for
Jasmine’s father. Robin Williams’s genie is, of course, a far more
affable version of Ingram’s fearsome character. And Sabu’s nimble
thief Abu becomes Aladdin’s monkey sidekick by the same name!